No other route to seeking truth works from the inside out!
“All of my life I heard people spouting truth. Their version of the truth. ‘Peace is found by emptying your spirit of bad thoughts.’ ‘Love is when someone holds you in their arms.’ ‘Joy is treating your neighbor as you want to be treated.’ (these are humanism) Good Luck With That ! I tried it. HA, what a bunch of baloney. No amount of self discipline can counter balance the deliciously evil schemes we relish in our minds; love hasn’t worked for anyone I know except fairy tale princesses, and even they suffer; and my neighbors don’t deserve more than a kick in the pants!” (this is post-modernism)
Are you ready for some revolutionary new news?
Repentance from sin is GOOD NEWS!
That’s right, good news! Are there sacrifices involved, sure. We trade a BAD way to get happy, for a GREAT plan that promises joy.
Do you see why repentance sets apart our quest for truth? All of the paths to truth that the world invents require super-human effort to achieve freedom. God’s plan involves one super-human who achieved freedom for us and then sent us a spirit to live in us and give us extra strength. It’s almost as if the Holy Spirit gives us special super powers.
That would be a cool thought wouldn’t it? The Holy Spirit is the key to fulfilling the world’s high and lofty humanistic goals. When we recognise that some things only God can do and that sometimes He likes to work through us.
LOVE AS A CASE STUDY:
So the quest for love is revolutionized. I examine some of the tools my friends promote – they don’t seem to be working for my friends either. But now with God, I have new tools I can afford to destroy some of the old advice and follow new guidelines: wait till marriage, choose a timeline that fosters deeper commitment, give wholeheartedly.
Simultaneously I let go of old methods and implement new ways of demonstrating love. It works. And guess what? I learn what it means to love better and better. And as I learn, I leave more things behind. And you know what we call those rotten things we leave behind that promised joy, but just don’t work? We call them SIN. Yeah, because they’re not from God.
And when I feel too weak, and when I face trails, I lay on my face and I tell God I don’t know what to do. He works it out. Because that’s His job. To teach me how to love.